15 Illustrations: Sunday Morning at St. Andrews

Posted on July 8, 2016 by lksukany

I am working with Inktense pencils, Prismacolor and Micron ink pens, and Canson Illustration 11×14″ 150lb art pad to create 15 illustrations (that is how many pieces of paper are in the art pad) of my current family life and inspirations.

This work is narrative in content and uses color in a monochromatic way accentuating one part of each drawing. These fun and quirky illustrations are a reflection of the current joy I have been experiencing with my family and friend life situation.

In “Sunday Morning at St. Andrews,” our little family is standing while the Gospel according to St. Matthew is being read – in which we all respond “Glory to you Lord, Christ.” We have recently moved to Springfield, MO for M’s job and I am really missing our church St. Andrews, so this piece is especially sentimental.

I wanted to match the actual color of the main wall in the church, so I blended Carmine Pink and Tangerine Inktense pencils to get that orange color. All in all I was happy with the composition and patterns in this illustration.

Some of the things I enjoy the most about this drawing are our little family portrait,

the Gospel reading, and the backs of the other people’s hair and patterned clothes.

The inspiration for this drawing:

Arkansas Life “Sketchbook Feature”

Posted on August 28, 2015 by lksukany

I was contacted by Jordan Hickey, senior editor at Arkansas Life about interviewing for the Arkansas Sketchbook feature for August 2015. He had come across some of my work online – specifically Developed and Less Finished: Maintaining Life and thought it would be a good fit for the Arkansas Life A&E section. He would interview me and would feature a large image of one piece along with a short bio.

“Do you think that’s something you’d be interested in?”

Of course I would! How exciting! Who does that? What artists’ work gets viewed and then is asked to interview and be featured in a well-known publication? Me!!!!

We scheduled a phone interview and talked for about an hour. The next thing I knew I was the feature artist in Arkansas Life for August 2015.

At the end of the article, there was even mention of the Wildwood art show! “Be sure to head over to Wildwood Gallery at Little Rock’s Wildwood Park for the Arts later this month, where LK will be exhibiting Developed and Less Finished: Maintaining Life from Aug. 21 to Sept. 20.”

You can read the article arkansaslife.com/plumbing.

Paintings for Livada: Hay Day

Posted on January 22, 2015 by lksukany

When I was on the missions trip with Grace Church serving the Livada Orphan Care ministry in Romania, the beauty of the country inspired me. I had the idea that when I got home to Arkansas I could paint these Romanian scenes and donate the paintings to Livada to raise money for orphan sponsorship.

Our group went to the restaurant called Restaurant Pestisorul de Aur. We explored the site and found beautiful scenery and even some wildlife. We also took a group picture.

Image to Paint

Charcoal Sketch on Canvas

Painting Sketch (1st Coat)

Painting Sketch (2nd Coat)

Final Painting

The Bus-y-ness of Art

Posted on September 18, 2014 by lksukany

“I’m busy.” There, I said it. You are probably busy too. What kind of busy is a better question. Too busy busy? Too tired busy? You may not even know what year it is busy or pretending it is still last weekend busy.

Wherever you are on the busy scale, there is still time…

I have been busy lately. Busy at work and with house chores, with organization and family relationships, busy with pet maintenance and meal planning, busy with fixing all of the many broken things in my house and car and life! I am also busy with my art and music projects amidst the busyness. What’s that you say? I am actually working on art and music projects while being “life busy” busy?! Yes I am! The deal is, that I just keep the art and music projects on my giant to-do list. And I do mean GIANT – it’s like never ending in my mind…

The bus-y-ness or business of art is that it just keeps going. You keep making it, keep generating ideas and writing them down, keep on keeping on – whether calm or not.

My friend S recently said he can only paint when he feels secure. He hasn’t painted in almost 7 years. My advice was to just pull out a sketch book and draw something. Not a finished masterpiece something, just his foot or something. It’s never going to be the perfect time to make a painting or write a song. Even retired people don’t get to really retire anymore. So there is never going to be time. Add it to your to-do list, and I guarantee sketching your foot is going to look a lot better than scrubbing the bathtub on a Saturday afternoon. So, I must show that I practice what I preach, so you won’t roll your eyes while hating me.

I will share with you projects I am working on this week – these projects come after work, carpooling, dinner, and daily chores.

Romania paintings

I have been working in my art studio on the Romania painting series for Livada orphan sponsorship. This one has been difficult to get through – emotionally. Though it feels amazing to be able to be what I think could be called an artist missionary, there has also been a lot of internal pressure on myself to make these paintings excellent. Also, I don’t know how much money they will raise for child sponsorship, and that makes me feel like “will this make a difference for the Livada orphans?” I am most likely over thinking it and psyching myself out – just need to paint!

The Last Baby Angel set design

Then there is the set design for the Last Baby Angel play based on the novel “The Last Baby Angel” by Sam Brown. It’s the first time I have ever done set design, and am still working on the research phase. I was able to call someone in the social work field this week and they were helpful and described some details of what an addicts home looks like.

Banjo Practice

Playing music is just something I have to keep doing. if you don’t use it, you lose it. I try to practice my banjo rolls and songs every day – whether for 15 minutes or an hour. I take one banjo lesson per week with the amazing Bill Nesbitt (who currently plays with the Clark Family Trio).

KUAR Arts & Letters

M and I are working on recording songs for the KUAR Arts & Letters Arkansas Authors show to be recorded in early October. We are also in the process of writing a Valentines Day song for the KUAR Arts & Letters Valentines Day show (The Damsels in Distress interview) to be aired in February. The cool thing about this is that I have someone to work with (motivation) to complete the projects!

So, I know you are “life busy” too, but what can you add to your giant to-do list to make space to continue functioning as a creative person?

Artist Studio Series: Katherine

Posted on July 29, 2014 by lksukany

I went to the Katherine Strause art exhibition Arkansas Homemakers: Home Demonstration and Extension Clubs at the Arkansas Studies Institute Butler Center Galleries. There is a piece about this Katherine Strause art exhibition in The Arkansas Times.

I haven’t actually met Katherine Strause in person, but I did feel like I met her here through her art. I was immediately wowed by her paintings – the color, composition, brush strokes, and paint application.

There were so many details I like about Arkansas Homemakers: Home Demonstration and Extension Clubs .

I liked the paint application on the butterfly woman’s face in “4H” as well as the flowers at the bottom right corner of the painting.

I liked the paint application of the foliage on “Home Demonstration Agent.”

I loved the dress pattern on “Feeding Scratch.”

Speaking of loving dress pattern, there were so many great dress patterns in “Does Anyone Still Wear a Hat.” I also really liked the stylistic portraits.

In “Bow and Arrow” the paint application is excellent. The color scheme in this painting and the pinks are delightful. Also the color and patterns on the dress are great.

Specifically, the compositional element of how the yard tools cross on “Smoke” caught my attention.

Because I am a fan of ladies aprons, I liked “Subversives.”

I really enjoyed myself!

Katherine Strause Artist Studio

I contacted Katherine Strause shortly after experiencing the delights of her work. She accepted my Facebook friend request! I asked her if I could post about her show and if she was interested in showing her artist studio. She said yes!!!

Katherin Strause Studio – Katherine writes about her studio below.

“My favorite part of the studio is the isolation. It’s in the attic so only occasionally is there an interruption.”

“I usually have old movies on a little TV. The studio is only used as the studio.”

“My routine would be: have a looming deadline, search for images to use, stretch canvas, prime etc., draw and trace to get images onto the canvas, paint but try not to overpaint which is the hardest part.”